Meet Sara Kennedy: The New Executive Director of the ADLCC

For the first time since 2020, Arizona Legislative Democrats have an opportunity to take control over one or both houses of the State Legislature. 

With strong candidates in battleground legislative districts (LD)Two, Four, Nine, 13, 16, and 23, Democrats feel that, with the Republican brand disintegrating in the public eye due to their blind following of the cult of Trump and his Back to the Isolationist-Rich First-Knowledge Last-Gilded Age policies that are negatively affecting Arizona and the nation, that the wind may be at their electoral back this cycle. 

To help get the Legislative Democrats over the electoral finish line, two new leaders have been recruited by the Arizona Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (ADLCC) to make that happen: Sara Kennedy as Executive Director and Tommy Mattocks as Communications Director. 

Ms. Kennedy graciously interviewed with Blog for Arizona to discuss her role in turning the Arizona Legislature blue. 

The questions and her responses are below. 

Please tell the readers the main reason you assumed control of the ADLCC when the primary campaigns were well underway. Please explain.

“As many of the readers probably know, the ADLCC was founded 10 years ago with the sole purpose of flipping the legislature. So, we’re the only organization in Arizona that is hyper-focused and 100% focused on making sure that we are electing Democrats to the state Senate and the state House. This year in 2026, we see that we have the best shot at making a Democratic trifecta a reality and flipping these chambers, and we wanted to make sure that there’s a team in place that can really capitalize on the historic opportunity that’s right in front of us in this moment.”

“A little bit about my background. I have been running caucus programs since 2022 and have seen success in North Carolina and Colorado, making sure that we are electing Democrats to our state legislature. So, I came here because I fully believe in the opportunity right in front of us in Arizona to be able to deliver democratic majorities in both of these chambers and make history.”

“There’s an incredible slate of candidates running and an extremely talented staff that is working so, so tirelessly here at the ADLCC. I’m really just honored to be able to serve in this capacity.”

Looking at the map, what are the names of the legislative districts that you see in play for the 2026 midterms that will propel the Democrats to the majority in 2027? 

“So, we have a multitude of targeted districts, and as you well know, and I’m sure your readership does as well, Arizona has a very unique district system where both the State Senate and House of Representatives are in the same geographic region. So, we’re looking at districts all across the state, but our target districts right now include Legislative District Two, Legislative District Four, Legislative District Nine, Legislative District 13, the single-shot House candidate in Legislative District 16, our slate in LD 17, and then LD 23 as well.”

“I think what really excites me about these districts is, of course, they’re the same ones people have been hearing about forever. And the reason people keep hearing about them is that they do have so many persuadable voters who want to, at this level of the ballot, vote for people that they see a bit of themselves in and can relate to and have a lot of respect for the backgrounds that they bring to the table and will then propel them to an elected official. We have an incredible slate of candidates with backgrounds in national security, the military, public education, and small business owners. I’m very excited about the opportunities in those districts and the candidates that we have that really represent the populations.”

You mentioned LD Nine. Do you consider that still a purple district? I would think, because I’m not far from there, I would think that’d be kind of blue. 

“We feel very good about making sure that we are holding onto all three of those seats in LD Nine but of course want to make sure we are never taking anything for granted. And so making sure we are supporting those candidates, because of course we can’t flip if we don’t hold.”

What are the three common issues that LD Democrats will run on in 2026? 

“This is going to come as a surprise to nobody, but affordability and how Arizonans are really feeling the squeeze of being able to make sure that they are paying their mortgage, paying their rent, able to eat, pay for their groceries, their gas, and then also just have enough to live. I think that is another piece of it of making sure that we are keeping Arizona as affordable as possible so that way people can enjoy the wonderful things that this state offers in regards to recreation. And rather than just working to live, and making sure that we are bringing the affordability crisis to the forefront and how Democrats have practical solutions to make sure working families are able to meet their bottom line at the end of the day and bring that crisis down.”

“The second thing, of course, is public education. Arizona, our public education system is dead last in the country. And it’s because we are seeing just taxpayer dollars being siphoned out of our public schools. And we’re also seeing it being used in unaccountable ways where there’s waste, fraud, and abuse of these tax dollars that should be going to making sure that we are fully funding all of our public schools, able to increase teacher pay, and reduce our class sizes. We are really going to be talking a lot about education and how we can be making sure our children are set up for success.”

“The last one is our water security and what our water future looks like. Water is a scarce resource here in Arizona. And making sure that we are being innovative when it comes to how we treat our water and how water is used all across Arizona is critical, and having our candidates talking about how they will make sure that they are an advocate for innovative solutions to protect our resources.”

Tell more about ESA reform.

“Many Democrats are not against parents being able to choose vouchers. We want to make sure that children are getting the best education for themselves. How do we make sure that those vouchers aren’t being abused and being used for non-educational purposes? And we’ve seen research and data already coming out that these vouchers and the money that comes from them, which are Arizona tax dollars, are not being used for children’s education. So how do we make sure that we are cracking down on the fraud that is widespread in that system?

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Please describe at least two ways the ADLCC will work to increase voter turnout among Democrats, independents, and like-minded Republicans for the November elections.

“I think this goes back to kind of what I’ve been briefly touching on but really make sure we’re talking about the issues that are on the forefront of voters’ minds. We’re seeing this at a national scale and even at a local level where voters are tired of the fighting, the culture wars. They really just want to hear that their candidates not only see the issues that they are facing, but also have solutions to be able to fix them and really are hyper-focused on the issues that are at the forefront of voters’ minds. We have a great message, and we’re taking it everywhere. Our candidates aren’t just talking about the voters’ problems, but they’re also talking about the solutions and how that translates into elected service. Because I think at the end of the day, what people want is they want to be able to see their candidates and their elected officials actually being solutions-oriented.”

Please describe at least two ways the ADLCC will educate voters to fill in their ballots for the LD races. And what I mean by that question, as you know, when voters go to the ballot, they’ll fill in for the governor; they’ll fill in for some of the other statewide and congressional offices but when it gets to corporation commission, when it gets to LD candidates, when it gets to school board, the pencil all of a sudden breaks. What are you going to do about that? 

“This is a problem with state legislative campaigns at large. There’s so much attention on larger statewide races. They have the money, and those are so important. We need to make sure we’re electing Governor Hobbs. Kris Mayes gets reelected to Attorney General. Secretary of State Fontes can stay our Secretary of State and oversee our elections, as well as other Democrats running statewide.”

“But I think that there’s not as much visibility for voters, not only on who their state legislative candidates are, but what their state legislature does. This is the branch of government that most directly impacts their lives. And so, making sure that, again, going back to what we’re talking about, not only who the candidates are, what they stand for, and why it’s important. It’s that third piece to make sure that voters, when they go to that ballot box, they do check off Governor Hobbs. They check off Attorney General Mayes and Secretary Fontes, and that they remember that their tax dollars are being used and spent by their state legislature, by their state senator and their state house members.”

“I think the second piece of it is talking about around the vote for two seats, especially when it comes to the state house. It is the language on the ballot that can get a little confusing. It says vote for two and making sure that they know not only the two that they should be voting for, but why it’s so important to mark both of those names at the end of the day.”

Please describe at least two ways the ADLCC will educate and persuade uninformed voters to support LD Democrats in the November elections. As you know, in the 2024 elections, there was a sizable education gap.

“The legislative branch is the branch of government that directly impacts people the most and that they know the least about. How do you square that circle? And I think it goes back to doing that education piece of talking about public education because public education does live in the state legislature and how we are funding education statewide and being able to talk about those issues. And I think we are in a uniquely advantageous position at this moment because the candidates in all of our races are from their districts and they’re able to talk about these issues at a uniquely local level. So making sure that maybe those voters that don’t know what their state legislature is, what it does, why it’s so important, they’re going to be able to hyper-localize it and really connect with those voters because they are so intertwined in the communities.”

To what extent does the ADLCC have the financial resources to help their LD candidates and the battleground districts? The reason I’m asking that, as you know, there was a recent report that the DNC has some financial issues. And also in Arizona, you’re running into some fringe organizations, well-funded fringe organizations like Turning Point who are backing their candidates. So how would you address that, please? 

“First things first, if any of your readers are resonating with what I’m saying, feel free to go to ADLCC.com and click that donate button. I think Arizona is a battleground state at every level of the ballot, and the state legislature is not unique in that. So we are one of the top opportunities from the DLCC. We are one of their battleground states, which is a national organization that works to elect Democrats to the state legislature as well.  We are actively talking to donors in the state and partners, both in state and nationwide, about the real opportunity we have to flip these legislatures. We’re starting to see resources wanting to come in and help us, to your point, make sure that we can communicate about our candidates and not just let some organizations that are Republican-funded really dominate the airwaves and dominate the ecosystem for the selection.”

Is there anything not covered in the first seven questions that you’d like to say about the ADLCC, the 2026 LD Democratic candidates, and the electoral prospects for 2026? Please explain. 

“I think one thing I didn’t get to touch on as much as I wish I had is really going into how fantastic our candidates really are running in these targeted districts. They understand their districts so uniquely. They have such impressive backgrounds. And I think one of the most impressive things about the majority of candidates is that they have the real-life experience that voters want to see out of their elected official. They haven’t just been working in government forever and then decided to run for office. They’ve set up businesses. They’ve been in classrooms. They’ve been serving our country. I think that voters will really be able to resonate with their stories and the practical solutions that they have been working on in the real world and be able to translate that into being the best representative for them possible and sharing those values because they are so intertwined with the community. I feel very fortunate to be able to work with such an incredible slate of candidates as well as, again, the talented staff that works so tirelessly both in districts and at ADLCC that are hyper-focused on making sure that these candidates get across the line and we flip these chambers.”

Please click here to find out more about the ADLCC.